OBX STATUS!!!

Weston, the least likely of any of us to be accused of being a fan of hip-hop, laid down "OBX STATUS!!!" as our hip-hop tribute cheer for the trip. That, along with the smattering of other hip-hop culture buzzwords, punctuated our early morning preparation for a relaxing 14 hour drive to the Outer Banks, where we would spend the next week just chilling out and skating here and there in the off-season.

here are some OBX Status pics for you... so lift your arms up and do those rap-motion things with your hands... maybe wear some "colors" for your "hood". Ben's throwing down the Tony Hawk Jammies for the trip there. Those things are Flamin Hot, son!

Fickleboards is in no way related to this product...

this toy actually exists... home made headgasket/bandanna thing...converted kicking/singing baby toy with a cheap plastic imitation skateboard screwed to it's foot... disturbing...

Bob's Pool/DVO

Every time we come to the Outer Banks, NC (Judy has a great deal on off-season vacay here), I visit my friends at DVO (Duck Village Outfitters). Bob Hovey Runs the place and he's tops. The dude's a ripper from old school Sergie Ventura VB status back in the day. He surfs Bali every Feb and is mellow as it gets.

Bob has let me skate his pool for years now, and I'd like to recommend him to all of you as one of the most chill dudes we've ever met. We've found home and friends here through Bob's hospitality, and this year we have begun Fickle Style sessions with the locals here.

Lew at Bob's Pool OBX

Aaron at Bob's OBX

Ben at Bob's OBX

Bob"s Pool

Bob runs DVO--a great surf and skate shop with locations in Duck and Salvo, NC. He is letting us skate his pool. here's a pic of Ben and Aaron with young Damon, old Mike, and Johnny.

Test Riders!!!

These guys made my day. I took our prototype sample from Pennswood out for a test drive... it's for our new hybrid Pool/Downhill... and these guys got to try that one, our 8.5 and our 8.25 for comparison... it was a blast, and they stoked me by ENJOYING our boards... there really is something good going on with these dimensions and this concave. There is so much more to skateboarding than doing tricks, isn't there? The rush of going really fast on a board that's made for it, downhill and in bowls, and skating that flows from the surfing roots...

Fickle is really a Midwest crew of surfers...who never see the ocean.

Browndog Martin at the Cold Man Jam

You know what? Lew is from the Hudson Valley... thought he'd never return (Hi Dan). Our boy Browndog pretty much has a Fickle Trip in April guaranteed. Brownie skates the Autumn Bowl and stuff like that. Brownie, you're on a whole nother level!

Here's some pics of old Browndog holding it down on our headshot board over there.. Hey, if you get a chance to skate with Brownie over there and want to know how to get boards like that, get in touch with us here at Fickle and we'll get your skateshop pushing american made quality wood.

Josh and Daniel/Knoxville and N.Atlanta

this has been a good and busy month, as most holidays are wont to be... Here are some of the pics we get here from our riders and from fans of our wood, out there. Josh is our Knoxville rider. He's a standup guy. He's a standupsidedown guy.

Daniel is one of our goodguy riders dowin in NATL. He's already a RIIPPPPPER! Ripper. Rips huge bowls with his steezy steez and big backside airs and such. Really. Took like 4th in the GA bowlriders comp out of a pretty big field. So that was raad raaad raaaaaad when he did this proper invert at Mike's Rep Ramp. Remember that ramp? you know you want to skate it. We slept on it many nights and it's raaaaaaaaaad!

things are been busy...

Well, cold weather has set in, but things are still busy with FickleBoards! We're finalizing our warehouse plans and getting geared up to really push for urban skateparks in Cincinnati, with the Northside Skatepark effort. So there is a lot of lumber and stuff going on.

Also, our Lexington Rep, Andrew Jones, is this really crusty old man with a lot of weather on his wings. Well he skates and he surfed for years on the northern west coast and stuff--real salty dog... and he built a sick sick sick mini for Loki Skate Shop in nicholasville KY, about 15 minutes from Lex... This thing is Built! You see, Andrew used to build BOATS, and his ramp-building skills are SICK.

Also in the works, a wooden bowl in a heretofore undisclosed location.

Also in the works, two Experimental Board Projexts. EBP's are one of our favorites. You see, what we do is we look around and think on what we want to ride... and we look at what we've done so far... And we come up with something new! Something so different and cool that you're like "Whoah". then we find experimental test riders and have them get one on pre-order at a MAJOR discount, and they give us the feedback on it.

Once the first experimental run is finished, we refine it and release the done deal. Sometimes we end up at the drawing board, but so far, it's worked out really well...

This EBP is a 35" board with a 16.5" wheelbase. It's main purpose is speed to cruise hills, bomb-and-slide style. At this point it looks good for pools, too. Tony Alva rides a 34 or a 36 every time he goes out, so this is kind of a middle ground for old-school street or pool riding, too.

So there are a lot of projects going on! And we're having a blast.